January 22: EAVESDROPPER. Many Thanks to Angela for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!
It started in his ears, a soft buzzing that originated from the high booth next to him. They’d come in from the cold, two women with long coats unzipping with such zest that he missed their initial conversation, after their loud greeting to the waitress, Margo, who seemed to always be working, at this particular breakfast and lunch café.
January 25: TRANSMISSION. Many Thanks to Dar for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!
She was new to this kind of weather.
After shoveling a thin strip from the apartment’s front entrance to her car, and digging an oasis around her door on the passenger side, she felt sure she’d solved the problem.
She was new to the northern climate, sure that her southern-bred skills fully prepared her for the winter days. She’d seen footage on the television, heard all the jokes, seen all the memes, but the job offer was too sweet to pass up. The on-street parking didn’t seem like a serious problem when she’d moved here in late Spring. She was hearty. She was adventurous.
January 23 prompt: ALTRUISM. Many Thanks to Rohini for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!
Meanwhile in Minnesota
So here’s an inspiring story about two moms who accompany neighborhood school kids to make sure they get safely from the bus stop to their homes. They were picked up for detention by ICE (don’t know why) and here’s the story they (with just a hint of our Minnesota accent ) told KARE11’s Jana Shortal (Breaking the News). I expect we’ll hear more; this just reported today.
They were handcuffed in the middle seats of the ICE vehicle, two agents in the front, and one in the space behind the two women. The agent in the back said that he wasn’t feeling so good, the driver continued driving, and the back agent started making choking noises and slumped over. One of the women told the two agents in the front that they needed to pull over because the man was having a seizure (he had a total of three).
January 19: CONSISTENCY. Many Thanks to Warren for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!
A Gift of Bread-Making
Woke up to 20 below this morning, and that was AFTER sunrise. It is MLK Jr. Day today, even as the eldritch forces attempt to smudge this from our memories. We remember, and we move forward in reverence to his—and our—mission.
Today’s my day to offer up a prompt for Linda’s Just Jot it January. That prompt is CHEWY.
Instead of writing a story, I’m doin’ a thing. Sitting comfortably in my favorite coffee shop with a decaf Cafe Miel, with a strip of Bison & Beef Pemmican (additional flavors of ground sumac berries & maple syrup).
Best jerky I’ve ever had, a nice shot of salty with sweet. Chewy, yes, but not dry and leathery like the grocery store variety. Great afternoon boost as we launch into another…um…eventful week.
The sun is shining, getting a nice melt down. And note the sign on the wall. Let’s honor our beautiful, inclusive country. Most of us here have ancestry that relied on Lady Liberty’s promise. Let’s renew that.
January 11 – “OPINION”. Many Thanks to Johnfor today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!
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Favorite restaurant, family owned, the best place to be if you want home-cookin’ not your own. Reliable quality, too: good soups and bread, burger and fries, miracles with eggs, real pan-fried fish that doesn’t come frozen from an oversized plastic bag stuffed with suspiciously uniformly shaped and sized, already-breaded hunks of fish flesh. Cocktails creatively concocted, local brewery beer on tap, rich, heavy coffee, served up black or tarted up with cream and syrup, or a shot of whisky.
January 9 – “Celebrate”. Many Thanks to Wendy for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!
(Part 3 of 3, continued from Stumble…)
Winter softened into Spring, Summer strolled by with bare shoulders and snapping flip flops, finally trading off the lazy slap of summer fun for the aromatic crunch of boots on fallen leaves. Squirrel Bird Woman was still feeding her charges, and it turned out that she had classes in many of the same buildings I haunted, as I grinded through my graduate coursework and final thesis. Not that I followed her around; we just walked many of the same campus paths. As my graduate program progressed, so did the number and mileage of walks I took.
Her range of feeding the animals was more extensive than Joe and I had realized. Piles of seeds were spread every quarter of a mile on the grass beside the sidewalks. She made her rounds early mornings and afternoons now, somehow refilling her buckets in between. Like me, she must have lived in one of the tiny apartments near campus. I knew better than to interrupt her efforts with words, but she did offer up a smile now and again. Progress.
Valley 